Anna Bray Sharpin

Anna helps local, state and national authorities in NZ and Australia understand and apply the opportunities for Safe System and Movement and Place-based guidance and policies for road safety, including safe speed limits.

She also works across the road safety and community teams to help clients get the most out of the links between road safety, active and public transport, public space and environment. Anna’s first passion was sustainable mobility in the urban context – helping people see and celebrate the links between better safety, accessibility, environmental and community outcomes.

About Anna

Anna has a BSc in Environmental Studies and Human Geography from Victoria University of Wellington, and an MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics, where she focused her studies on identifying and addressing barriers to safe active transport.

Anna is a specialist in the application of Safe System philosophy for road safety, with a special interest in improving the accessibility and safety of streets to create more sustainable and socially inclusive towns and cities.

Anna has over 15 years of experience working in transport and road safety. After starting her career in local government in New Zealand, Anna spent a decade living, working, and studying in a variety of cities including Mexico City, São Paulo, London and Washington DC.

She has worked with intercultural and interdisciplinary teams to improve urban mobility and road safety through projects ranging from developing international guidance to demonstrating direct street level design changes.

She led authorship of safe system based guidance designed to be used internationally, and adapted to local contexts, including Sustainable and Safe: A Vision and Guidance for Zero Road Deaths (World Bank Global Road Safety Facility & WRI, 2018) and the Low-Speed Zone Guide (WB World Bank Global Road Safety Facility & WRI, 2021), and was acknowledged by the German TUMI initiative as a Remarkable Woman in Transport recipient (2019).

Anna is now based in Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to joining Abley, she worked as Principal Advisory (Speed, Infrastructure and Urban Mobility) at Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency for four years. There, Anna was an advisor to councils during the pilot phase of the Streets for People programme and played a key role in the redevelopment of New Zealand’s speed management framework, including leading the country's first principle-based national Speed Management Guide (2022).

Anna loves connecting people and bringing together teams of people from diverse perspectives to bring the best out in each other and in a project, both in her professional roles and in her community. 
Anna set up and curates a little free library outside her neighbourhood school, which has circulated thousands of kids’ books through the local community.